How to get rid of constipation: New Zealand way?|New Zealand Life!

My family of two parents and two children currently live in Auckland, New Zealand. When we initially moved here, both myself and my elder son experienced constipation.

On the contrary, my husband and younger son never had constipation – I guess it is the type of body we have…

So how did I, myself, and my poor elder son manage to come out of our constipation? We found two methods that worked for us….

Going overseas could be a cause of constipation?

People often experience constipation after moving overseas. This could be due to various reasons, like changing in diet or high stress levels you might experience after relocating.

This was the case for our family too, when we moved from Japan to New Zealand. We (mainly myself and my son) became constipated party because we were stressed and tired from the move.

On top of that, all the root vegetables like Daikon horse radish and Gobou, and all the sea weeds that we used to eat in Japan were rich in soluble fibers. But we were no longer eating much of such food after arriving in New Zealand – so there was a lot of dietary changes.

What is easy natural remedy for constipation??

It is important to go see a doctor when your constipation is really bad. But if you can manage it with other means, that would be better too.

So we looked into various “can-do-at-home” ways to solve constipation, and we found two methods that worked particularly well for us.

First is “laying flat on your tummy” method that was featured in Japanese TV show. The second was the very Kiwi way… both as described below.

Easiest method EVER to relieve constipation

So the first method is to lay flat on your tummy method. It is easy and does not cost anything, you can try it right now.

Here is how:

1.First, you lay flat on your tummy. Make sure to lay on a hard surface, like directly laying on a carpet or even wooden floor.

2.Keep laying down for about 10 minutes. Make sure your tummy is flat.

3.After 10 minutes, wiggle your body like you roll half-way on your right, then half-way on your left, half-way on your right, half-way on your left…..

4.You can roll all the way if you want. Make sure to use the whole body to do above half-rolling exercise.

5.Your arms, shoulder, and of course the whole abdominal should come in contact with the floor when you roll on them.

6.Do this rolling exercise for 2-3 minutes.

*Note that this method is not recommended straight after having a meal or when your stomach is full. Try it between the meals when our stomach is reasonably empty.

How does this method help with constipation? This method works by stimulating your bowl movement. Your bowel movement is often blocked by too much gas in your body.

By laying flat on your tummy, exit from your bowl (rectum) now faces upwards and helps gas to float out (eventually resulting in a fart) and helps reduce the gas.

Then the rolling motion helps stimulate your bowl to move.

This method was very effective for us. We could feel our bowel moving after doing the laying flat-rolling exercise, although going toilet was a while later.

If you perform this everyday, many people will see improvements in your bowel activity over a week or two.

Since it doesn’t require anything else other than 12-3 minutes to lay down while watching TV, I it is risk-free cost-free method everyone should try.

Good food for constipation? Try Kiwifruit!!

The second method that really worked for us is…. kiwifruit!!

There are many foods that are said to be good for relieving constipation. Well when I asked around to local people in New Zealand, many people suggested “Kiwifruit will do the trick!”

People like distant family members or preschool teachers, and plunket nurses even recommended kiwifruit.

I suppose it is very New Zealand way to relieve constipation… considering our national bird is Kiwi bird and we produce a lot of kiwifruit in New Zealand!

So we gave this a try, went out to the local shop and bought a bag of kiwifruit.

…. and it works!!

I think it works better than the famous prune juice or “natural fiber drinks” in the health section.

Kiwifruits are rich in soluble fibers like pectin and are also rich in digestive enzymes; both are very healthy for digestive system.

So I guess these active nutrients makes kiwifruit a very good food for helping constipation.

It is so easy to eat as well – just chop a kiwifruit in half and scoop it with a tea spoon!

If kiwifruit is too sour, you could try the gold kiwifruits that are much sweeter and much less acidic. In my opinion normal kiwifruit has stronger effect on relieving constipation, but eating gold kiwifruit is still much better than not eating kiwifruit.

Kiwifruits also are rich in Vitamin C, so combined with constipation-relieving effect, it is a good fruit for our beauty!

These are good ways to get rid of constipation in kids too

So here is the summary of the methods introduced:

Try eating kiwifruit – even more so if you are in New Zealand!
Start right now- laying flat on your tummy & rolling exercise

Regularly eating kiwifruits and laying on our tummy before going to bed, we are pretty much constipation-free at a moment.

So in our view, both of above are very powerful methods for relieving constipation.

They are both natural and cost-effective methods too; and doesn’t require anything in particular (just kiwifruit). So you could try on your children too.

Good luck with getting rid of that constipation and happy toilet life!